Confluence

The confluence at the Grand and Speed Rivers. Photo by T. Beaubien.

Confluence Landscape

The Grand and Speed Rivers converge in an open landscape of the Grand Valley floodplain framed by the wooded slopes along Blair Road providing a scenic vista of the reaches above and below the confluence. These reaches provide wintering habitat for waterfowl – geese, puddle ducks and diving ducks including common goldeneye and common merganser – and resting and preening areas for migrating waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds. A large variety and density of fish, about two dozen species, and abundant aquatic invertebrate life speaks to the quality of the water and the rivers’ substrate. Fast-flowing water keeps the reach above the confluence open virtually every winter.

Since the winter of 1994, bald eagle has regularly foraged these reaches during the winter months and established favoured perch sites in a crack willow grove and in large hackberry and oaks along the remnant field edges of the rare shoreline.

Vision for the Future

The vision for the confluence is to maintain the scenic vista of this Canadian Heritage River as a natural landscape in the heart of the Grand River watershed within the urban setting of Waterloo Region. Reaches above and below the confluence will continue to be the premier wintering habitat for waterfowl and bald eagles in Waterloo Region.